bugscufle
01-27-2008, 10:26 PM
I received a quite unusual Christmas present this year. It is copies of 66 letters that a young soldier sent home to his family during World War II, between May, 1943, and October 1944.
He was born in 1925 and given the name James Jackson. Perhaps for reason of economy, the boy was called Jack. The boy's world pretty much consisted of Sabine County, Texas. The Sabine River runs along the county's eastern border. Across the river is the state of Louisiana.
World War II was not the eighteen year old's first war. He was born into financially depressed times, the second oldest of nine children. All through his young life, Jack and his family fought poverty.
His father often sharecropped, which meant that they lived in someone else's less than ideal house. If fact, to call some of these places a "house" is quite kind. Jack grew up without electricity or indoor plumbing. His father's employment was intermittent. Meals could be "iffy" things, requiring both hard work and magic, and often coming down to the wire. Some meals were more name than substance.
Jack, like most children of poverty during those times, took the family's precarious financial situation personal. In his mind, he was the one who needed to do something to improve the family's living condition. It is just not that easy for children to do much along those lines.
Nonetheless, growing up Jack noticed that a beneficial garden improved daily life considerable. He was absorbed in how a garden might be coxed into doing more and more and was relentless in doing whatever it took to achieve the goals he set for himself. Eventually his father just turned the acre and a half vegetable garden over to him. Occasionally, his mother, when she could would come work with him.
Jack learned he could not only persuade the garden to feed the family but to provide extra to take into town to sale. But all this hardly filled the family's bucket. At the completion of eleventh grade, Jack went to work in the shipyards in Beaumont, ninety miles away. Jack's older brother enlisted in the Air Force and was trying to become a bomber pilot. With Jack and Odis contributing, their dad signed a note to purchase a place of their own.
Jack turned eighteen in January. His fathers health was failing. Jack knew the military was in his near future, but that was okay. With a doctor certifying that his father was unable to work, Jack claimed 50% responsibility for the family's support. He would be eligible for an allotment. Jack's monthly pay in the Army as a private would be $31.50 a month. $22.00 would be taken from that, but the government would add $50.00. $72.00, plus what Odis sent would let the family continue to pay for the new place and at least have regular meals. Jack would just be involved in two wars now.
The following is an account of what Jack transcribed on a journey from Hemphill, Texas in May, 1943, to Paris, France, in October, 1944. (One of the reasons that Jack could write so many letters was that in World War II, postage for servicemen was free. That's the way it ought to be.)
Mineral Wells
The first stop was Fort Wolters near Mineral Wells, Texas. A lot of things struck Jack's attention when he entered the Army. In his first letter home, Jack commented about all the clothes he got, going to a PX, a canteen and a picture show. Jack also told the folks, "You know that's not picture show stuff about being snappy and alert in the Army. We have to take a bath and shave every day."
There is one other letter from Fort Wolters. It begins, "I just got back from chow. I took a shot yesterday and can't write much. So far the army is swell."
Hitchcock
The next stop was Camp Wallace, near Hitchcock, Texas, which is between Galveston and Houston. This was an anti-aircraft artillery training camp. In the first letter home Jack observed, "I noticed that civilians are extra friendly to soldiers. At noon we stopped at a cafe and all the civilians moved out so we could all eat."
Cokes at that time, came in 6.5 ounces, contour glass bottles. The fact that Cokes cost anything made them both expensive and special to a kid who had no money. Evidently, Jack had at least some change at this time, because in the same letter he observed, "You really enjoy a Coke after a day's work."
In the second letter from Camp Wallace to his parents and seven sisters, Jack described daily military life. "We have to stay on the alert 24 hours per day. However we are not commanded (usually) to do anything except clean the barracksor go on K.P. or guard duty from 5:30 pm until six in the morning," Jack reported. He went on to write, "We may expect a cussing anytime though."
"K.P." was kitchen patrol. K.P. consisted of peeling potatos, washing pots and pans, and emptying garbage cans and then cleans those cans.
Also in this second letter from Camp Wallace, Jack asked, "How is the garden?" Jack commented that while a garden, with a lot of effort, would give one all one could eat, so would the Army, with more dependability and less effort.
In the third letter home from Camp Wallace, Army life was starting to lose some of its lustre. Jack wrote, "We are kept on the run all the time. It don't do a fellow a darn bit of good to get lazy.. We don't have much time to get sick either." But Jack did go on to write, "The Army really is better than I expected."
The next letter, dated May 13, 1943, shows Jack to be quite upbeat. He starts the letter, "I was glad to get a letter from you today. I got a letter from Odis yesterday and one today. He sent me a couple of dollars. I think I will have enough to last me until pay-day. There are so many things you have to buy as your gun, etc., all has to be just so."
The letter stated that he had signed family allotment papers and they were being processed.
When Jack entered the Army, he was six feet, one-half inch tall, and weighed all of 140 pounds. Nobody had ever called him "Hercules." Like a lot of young men, jack was apprehensive if he was going to cut it in the Army. In this same letter of May 13th, Jack writes, "The Army is going to be alright. We have some pretty hard training but you never have to do anything you can't do."
Jack was not all the bumpkin one might think. His letter closes with the following paragraph, "This evening we went on a three mile hike with a 20 pound pack and rifle. Tonight, (Friday night) we had to scrub and clean up our barracks. I made it my business to go and get a haircut and I got out of it."
The news from home at this time reported lots of rain. Jack asked if grass was taking over the garden in the first paragraph of his May 16th letter home. Jack went on to write, "It is plenty hot down here. As the northern boys say, 'You can just sit still and still sweat.'"
Jack realized that that sentence would need further explanation because he had mentioned something that his folks back home had little familiarity with. Jack wentr on, "By the way, I am here with a bunch of northern boys. Most of them are real nice boys after you get used to them."
Jack was learning that it was a big world outside of Sabine County. The same letter continued, "After you get used to the boys you are with the Army isn't nearly so bad. There is some fun in marching and going hiking. Something else that interests a guy in the Army is that he sees picture shows of the war front and production lines that civilians are not allowed to see."
Food was always of interest to Jack. Later in this same letter he reported, "I have had trout twice for dinner since I have been in the Army. We have ice cream on Sunday." If they had been old enough, no doubt the Army could have signed all seven of Jack's sisters after this letter was read.
The first sentence in the next letter dated May 19th, follows this theme. Jack asked, "How is the potatoe and bean rotation coming along? You ought to have a fryer or two along on Sundays."
Jack's big brother came through once agrain as this letter later states, "I got a letter from Odis yesterday and one today. Each with a dollar in it."
A letter of May 23rd, repeated old themes, It asked if his mother was keeping up with the grass in the garden. Jack seems both surprised by and content with life in the Army when he writes, "I kindly enjoy the hiking. So far we haven't come to anything I couldn't do." Jack finagled his way from was from K.P. to guard duty.
Another common theme between soldiers and their families, as well as between families and their soldiers, is that one is always worried that the other is sharing all that might be worrisome. Jack brings this point home in the letter when he inquires, "You tell me you haven't been fishing since I left but if that's so, there's something terrible wrong. Maybe financial problems?" He follows this concern writing, "I don't know when you will get the first check from my allotment and I don't know how much it will be."
This letter ends with a lament typical for many skinny teenage boys, "I starve to death nearly between meals and stuff as much as I can, but I have not gained any weight since I've been in the Army."
The letter dated May 28th shows progress as a person and as a soldier. The letter begins, "I am having the starch taken out as Daddy says. I am doing as well as any of the boys. We have fun griping about what we have to do but we are learning to pitch in and get things done."
There were still all the things that needed to be done back home, even though the two oldest boys were now gone. Evidently there was some dissension in the ranks (the oldest sister was being "bossy"). Jack follows the earlier theme in his letter, writing to his sisters, "I think you all must be getting a system to the work around the house, according to your letters. The thing that helps is for everybody to pitch in and wor together."
In a letter dated June 1, 1943, Jack commiserated with the folks back home, writing wistfully, "I would like to have some chicken too, but I don't guess I will get any for a while."
The family back home was having severe financial problems by July, 1943, and the allotment had still not started. Jack wrote his father, "It will be a dirty trick to ourselves if we lose the place. If we can come out of the war with it, then we will have proved to ourselves that we can get ahead in due time." "Don't worry about fixing up the place or anything else but staying well and getting plenty to eat," Jack admonished.
Jack's father was having a hard time getting sympathy from the financial powers that be in Hemphill. Jack angrily consoled his father observing, "A amn could know everything that was known in Hemphill and he wouldn't know as much as a fly on a mule's butt."
Chicago
By August, 1943, Jack was in Coyne Electrical School in Chicago, Illinois. Replying to a letter from his folks that mentioned a local boy had been discharged, Jack wrote, "There are lots of boys who are getting discharges but I really don't want one."
Jack wrote about paying fifty cents for a motor boat ride in Lake Michigan.
He tried to visit home as often as he could, though it was only in his memories. Sometimes it seemed so real. In September, 1943, he wrote, "I can just see school books and paper lying all over the house tonight. Look around, on the floor, tables, beds, etc. Yeah, I knew they were strewn all over the place. And tell those kids to be quiet in there."
Jack had his first experiences with steam and furnace heat at this time. Technology was an amazing thing .
He was born in 1925 and given the name James Jackson. Perhaps for reason of economy, the boy was called Jack. The boy's world pretty much consisted of Sabine County, Texas. The Sabine River runs along the county's eastern border. Across the river is the state of Louisiana.
World War II was not the eighteen year old's first war. He was born into financially depressed times, the second oldest of nine children. All through his young life, Jack and his family fought poverty.
His father often sharecropped, which meant that they lived in someone else's less than ideal house. If fact, to call some of these places a "house" is quite kind. Jack grew up without electricity or indoor plumbing. His father's employment was intermittent. Meals could be "iffy" things, requiring both hard work and magic, and often coming down to the wire. Some meals were more name than substance.
Jack, like most children of poverty during those times, took the family's precarious financial situation personal. In his mind, he was the one who needed to do something to improve the family's living condition. It is just not that easy for children to do much along those lines.
Nonetheless, growing up Jack noticed that a beneficial garden improved daily life considerable. He was absorbed in how a garden might be coxed into doing more and more and was relentless in doing whatever it took to achieve the goals he set for himself. Eventually his father just turned the acre and a half vegetable garden over to him. Occasionally, his mother, when she could would come work with him.
Jack learned he could not only persuade the garden to feed the family but to provide extra to take into town to sale. But all this hardly filled the family's bucket. At the completion of eleventh grade, Jack went to work in the shipyards in Beaumont, ninety miles away. Jack's older brother enlisted in the Air Force and was trying to become a bomber pilot. With Jack and Odis contributing, their dad signed a note to purchase a place of their own.
Jack turned eighteen in January. His fathers health was failing. Jack knew the military was in his near future, but that was okay. With a doctor certifying that his father was unable to work, Jack claimed 50% responsibility for the family's support. He would be eligible for an allotment. Jack's monthly pay in the Army as a private would be $31.50 a month. $22.00 would be taken from that, but the government would add $50.00. $72.00, plus what Odis sent would let the family continue to pay for the new place and at least have regular meals. Jack would just be involved in two wars now.
The following is an account of what Jack transcribed on a journey from Hemphill, Texas in May, 1943, to Paris, France, in October, 1944. (One of the reasons that Jack could write so many letters was that in World War II, postage for servicemen was free. That's the way it ought to be.)
Mineral Wells
The first stop was Fort Wolters near Mineral Wells, Texas. A lot of things struck Jack's attention when he entered the Army. In his first letter home, Jack commented about all the clothes he got, going to a PX, a canteen and a picture show. Jack also told the folks, "You know that's not picture show stuff about being snappy and alert in the Army. We have to take a bath and shave every day."
There is one other letter from Fort Wolters. It begins, "I just got back from chow. I took a shot yesterday and can't write much. So far the army is swell."
Hitchcock
The next stop was Camp Wallace, near Hitchcock, Texas, which is between Galveston and Houston. This was an anti-aircraft artillery training camp. In the first letter home Jack observed, "I noticed that civilians are extra friendly to soldiers. At noon we stopped at a cafe and all the civilians moved out so we could all eat."
Cokes at that time, came in 6.5 ounces, contour glass bottles. The fact that Cokes cost anything made them both expensive and special to a kid who had no money. Evidently, Jack had at least some change at this time, because in the same letter he observed, "You really enjoy a Coke after a day's work."
In the second letter from Camp Wallace to his parents and seven sisters, Jack described daily military life. "We have to stay on the alert 24 hours per day. However we are not commanded (usually) to do anything except clean the barracksor go on K.P. or guard duty from 5:30 pm until six in the morning," Jack reported. He went on to write, "We may expect a cussing anytime though."
"K.P." was kitchen patrol. K.P. consisted of peeling potatos, washing pots and pans, and emptying garbage cans and then cleans those cans.
Also in this second letter from Camp Wallace, Jack asked, "How is the garden?" Jack commented that while a garden, with a lot of effort, would give one all one could eat, so would the Army, with more dependability and less effort.
In the third letter home from Camp Wallace, Army life was starting to lose some of its lustre. Jack wrote, "We are kept on the run all the time. It don't do a fellow a darn bit of good to get lazy.. We don't have much time to get sick either." But Jack did go on to write, "The Army really is better than I expected."
The next letter, dated May 13, 1943, shows Jack to be quite upbeat. He starts the letter, "I was glad to get a letter from you today. I got a letter from Odis yesterday and one today. He sent me a couple of dollars. I think I will have enough to last me until pay-day. There are so many things you have to buy as your gun, etc., all has to be just so."
The letter stated that he had signed family allotment papers and they were being processed.
When Jack entered the Army, he was six feet, one-half inch tall, and weighed all of 140 pounds. Nobody had ever called him "Hercules." Like a lot of young men, jack was apprehensive if he was going to cut it in the Army. In this same letter of May 13th, Jack writes, "The Army is going to be alright. We have some pretty hard training but you never have to do anything you can't do."
Jack was not all the bumpkin one might think. His letter closes with the following paragraph, "This evening we went on a three mile hike with a 20 pound pack and rifle. Tonight, (Friday night) we had to scrub and clean up our barracks. I made it my business to go and get a haircut and I got out of it."
The news from home at this time reported lots of rain. Jack asked if grass was taking over the garden in the first paragraph of his May 16th letter home. Jack went on to write, "It is plenty hot down here. As the northern boys say, 'You can just sit still and still sweat.'"
Jack realized that that sentence would need further explanation because he had mentioned something that his folks back home had little familiarity with. Jack wentr on, "By the way, I am here with a bunch of northern boys. Most of them are real nice boys after you get used to them."
Jack was learning that it was a big world outside of Sabine County. The same letter continued, "After you get used to the boys you are with the Army isn't nearly so bad. There is some fun in marching and going hiking. Something else that interests a guy in the Army is that he sees picture shows of the war front and production lines that civilians are not allowed to see."
Food was always of interest to Jack. Later in this same letter he reported, "I have had trout twice for dinner since I have been in the Army. We have ice cream on Sunday." If they had been old enough, no doubt the Army could have signed all seven of Jack's sisters after this letter was read.
The first sentence in the next letter dated May 19th, follows this theme. Jack asked, "How is the potatoe and bean rotation coming along? You ought to have a fryer or two along on Sundays."
Jack's big brother came through once agrain as this letter later states, "I got a letter from Odis yesterday and one today. Each with a dollar in it."
A letter of May 23rd, repeated old themes, It asked if his mother was keeping up with the grass in the garden. Jack seems both surprised by and content with life in the Army when he writes, "I kindly enjoy the hiking. So far we haven't come to anything I couldn't do." Jack finagled his way from was from K.P. to guard duty.
Another common theme between soldiers and their families, as well as between families and their soldiers, is that one is always worried that the other is sharing all that might be worrisome. Jack brings this point home in the letter when he inquires, "You tell me you haven't been fishing since I left but if that's so, there's something terrible wrong. Maybe financial problems?" He follows this concern writing, "I don't know when you will get the first check from my allotment and I don't know how much it will be."
This letter ends with a lament typical for many skinny teenage boys, "I starve to death nearly between meals and stuff as much as I can, but I have not gained any weight since I've been in the Army."
The letter dated May 28th shows progress as a person and as a soldier. The letter begins, "I am having the starch taken out as Daddy says. I am doing as well as any of the boys. We have fun griping about what we have to do but we are learning to pitch in and get things done."
There were still all the things that needed to be done back home, even though the two oldest boys were now gone. Evidently there was some dissension in the ranks (the oldest sister was being "bossy"). Jack follows the earlier theme in his letter, writing to his sisters, "I think you all must be getting a system to the work around the house, according to your letters. The thing that helps is for everybody to pitch in and wor together."
In a letter dated June 1, 1943, Jack commiserated with the folks back home, writing wistfully, "I would like to have some chicken too, but I don't guess I will get any for a while."
The family back home was having severe financial problems by July, 1943, and the allotment had still not started. Jack wrote his father, "It will be a dirty trick to ourselves if we lose the place. If we can come out of the war with it, then we will have proved to ourselves that we can get ahead in due time." "Don't worry about fixing up the place or anything else but staying well and getting plenty to eat," Jack admonished.
Jack's father was having a hard time getting sympathy from the financial powers that be in Hemphill. Jack angrily consoled his father observing, "A amn could know everything that was known in Hemphill and he wouldn't know as much as a fly on a mule's butt."
Chicago
By August, 1943, Jack was in Coyne Electrical School in Chicago, Illinois. Replying to a letter from his folks that mentioned a local boy had been discharged, Jack wrote, "There are lots of boys who are getting discharges but I really don't want one."
Jack wrote about paying fifty cents for a motor boat ride in Lake Michigan.
He tried to visit home as often as he could, though it was only in his memories. Sometimes it seemed so real. In September, 1943, he wrote, "I can just see school books and paper lying all over the house tonight. Look around, on the floor, tables, beds, etc. Yeah, I knew they were strewn all over the place. And tell those kids to be quiet in there."
Jack had his first experiences with steam and furnace heat at this time. Technology was an amazing thing .